Not six weeks ago, the Colorado Department of Transportation appeared to have all but settled on a controversial plan to solve the problem of the aging, congested Interstate 70 viaduct dividing the Elyria and Swansea neighborhoods. It would tear it down and build a bigger viaduct.

The neighborhoods no longer would be isolated from the rest of the city by an ugly, 50-year-old bridge. No, they would be isolated by a new, wider bridge, one that would eat its way farther into the surrounding neighborhoods.

City leaders were pushing for that bigger viaduct to grow north. A northward expansion would take out the elementary school, but the school district said it would rebuild in the neighborhood. Expand the viaduct south and bye-bye Purina plant and its jobs and property taxes.

No one liked the rebuild solution, but it came after nine years of options considered and discarded, of environmental study, of engineers coming and going, and of more meetings than can be counted.

Then, this week CDOT went public with another proposal. It can't be called a new idea. Instead, CDOT returned to one of the first options its engineers considered. They had rejected it, citing cost, groundwater contamination concerns and more extensive property acquisition. It tears down the viaduct, rebuilds I-70 about 30 feet below ground with five lanes in each direction and, the icing on the cake, places a deck about two blocks long over the freeway at Swansea Elementary. Atop that deck? A park, perhaps. The school and Purina stay where they are.

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Think of Interstate 25 between Washington and Logan streets. Roadway below, houses and business above, sound walls buttressing the sides.

Bombshell doesn't begin to describe what CDOT dropped. If carried out — money is always an issue — this new I-70 will change the profile of the city. It will open up neighborhoods that have languished in the viaduct's shadow. It's a huge improvement and a bold move. Think of that: a bold move from a bureaucracy.

Many questions remain, but early reaction from the neighborhood has been one part jubilation, one part wonder: "I can't believe they actually listened to us," says Swansea Elementary principal Gilberto Munoz.

"I think the community will be given a voice in a way that hasn't happened for 50 years," said Cynthia Gallegos, executive director of Focus Points Family Resource Center.

Which brings me, finally, to the question: Why the about-face?

Community and faith-based organizations, the neighborhood associations and urban planners and thinkers challenged CDOT on multiple fronts, from the adequacy of the environmental review to the lack of imagination. As Tom Anthony, a longtime Elyria leader, told me: "I thought we were going to have to sue CDOT to get this option. This is an enormous breakthrough."

And then there's Don Hunt, CDOT's executive director. He's been on the job 16 months. Hunt asked engineers to review the options. He decided the below-grade plan had to be considered even though it's more expensive.

"I'm new, so I have more latitude to ask questions," Hunt said Tuesday. " 'What about this? What about that? Why did we make that decision?' I'm sure a couple of engineers who have worked a long time on the project were grimacing, but at the end of the day, we had to be honest with the information. Could we reject this option on the basis of a 10 to 15 percent additional cost? No."

From CDOT's standpoint, there are more cons than pros, Hunt said. Building below grade is more complicated than building a bigger viaduct. The cost rises from an estimated $767 million to about $917 million. CDOT will have to buy about 87 homes, roughly 30 more than in the proposed north expansion. These are preliminary numbers.

"It's a subjective call," Hunt said. "In the minds of residents and the city of Denver, is this worth it?"

Hunt told me that while considering this plan, he visited the neighborhoods at Washington and Logan streets and I-25. "When I walk around there, which I encourage you to do, and I think about that solution for this neighborhood, I think, 'Wow!' " he said.